I have never tried creating a decorative cake but I want to try for my daughter's upcoming 2nd birthday in March. I would like to make a round 2-tiered strawberry cake. I want to make the bottom with (2) 9" rounds on top of one another then (2) 6" on top of the 9's. I have made the cream cheese base fondant and love the taste. I may put this on top of my buttercream icing or just put some fondant decorations on it.

My question is: Do I need some type of support for this size of a cake??? Do I need a cardboard cake plate in between each of the 4 layers or just the 2 of different sizes?

Thanks so much for your help!! I'm so eager to try and make a wonderful cake for my little girl.

Carol

Check this out:

http://www.cakecentral.com/article23-Teired-Stacked-Cake-Construction.html

In between the two tiers, I put a 6" cardboard circle. I usually put 4 dowels, or bubble tea straws into the 9" to stack the 6" on top.

You don't put cardboard rounds between the layers, only between the tiers. Between the layers you put icing or filling. So, for the cake you are describing, you will need a base to put the 9" on and cardboard round to put the 6" on. You will also need to put dowels in the botton tier to support the weight of the top tier. 3 dowels will probably be enough. Good luck and don't forget to post your cake when you're done!

Check this out:

http://www.cakecentral.com/article23-Teired-Stacked-Cake-Construction.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2310488_assemble-stacked-cake.html

Here are simple instructions. Yes, you need some type of cake board under each cake (not each layer, but each cake). If you aren't using a plate system, you will need wooden dowel rods that can be cut down to the correct size. You can get dowels at Michaels or AC Moore, or even Lowes. Hope that answers your question.

Thanks so much for the information!!! Can you also tell me how much in diameter these dowels should be?

Thanks Again for such a quick response!!!!!!

Carol

For a tier as light as a 6" you could even use drinking straws or bamboo skewers.

1/4" dowels should be ok for a small cake like you are doing. But for larger cakes I use large dowels. HTH

I use straw for my top tiers too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHSzbG_y9JE&feature=channel_page